Interactions Between Hypothalamic and Peripheral Hormones at the Anterior Pituitary Level

Abstract

Although peripheral hormones have been shown for many years to play a major role in the control of adenohypophyseal activity in man and experimental animals, in vivo approaches could not dissociate between hypothalamic and pituitary sites of action. This area of research vas much facilitated by the development of the pituitary cell culture system (Vale et al., 1972; Labrie et al., 1973). In fact, adenohypophyseal cells in primary culture have been extremely useful, not only for assessment of biological activity of analogs of TRH, LHRH and somatostatin (Labrie et al., 1973; Belanger et al., 1974; Labrie et al., 1976a, b) but also for determination of the characteristics of interaction between hypothalamic and peripheral hormones at the adenohypophyseal level (Drouin et al., 1976a, b; Drouin and Labrie, 1976a, b).